Page 239 of Sticks and Stones
Oh, shit.
Was his man going to walk to the hotel?
Gene pulled back out onto the main road, and as Ethan walked down the street, alone and in the dark, Gene followed, trying to get him back in the vehicle.
He rolled the window down.
“Babe!”
Ethan ignored him.
“EJ! Come on! It’s cold. I was just making a statement of true facts.”
Ethan flipped him off.
Gene gasped.
“Did you just give me the bird?” he asked, shocked because Ethan didn’t do that to him ever. That told Gene he was hella angry with him.
“EJ!”
Oh, and for Gene, it got worse.
Ethan walked up to a few women who were clearly on the stroll. When he approached them, they checked him out, saw the gun and badge, and looked worried.
“Ladies, can I bother you for a minute?” Ethan asked, knowing they’d help him. They were eyeing up his badge, and he was about to prove a point.
The one hooker looked nervous.
“We were just hanging out and talking,” she said, looking around for more cops.
“Yeah, sure. I’m not in Vice. You can calm down. I’m a Fed and I work homicides.”
That seemed to help.
“Okay, what do you need?” another woman asked.
Gene didn’t know what his partner was doing but he wasn’t happy.
That was for damn sure.
Hookers got mean if you threatened them, and Gene didn’t want to have to fight off a gaggle of prostitutes. They’d end up on the news with his luck.
Ethan pointed.
“See the man tailing me in that Mustang?” he asked.
They all looked over.
“Yeah, we see him.”
Ethan went there.
“I need for him to understand something, and I need another point of view.”
They didn’t seem bothered. In fact, they looked intrigued.
“Okay, my dude. Where are you taking this?” the redheaded hooker asked, snapping her gum.
